Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Jim’s Identification wlih a Mule. po’use. ye* yet. well as school. Old Ned’s son returned from college the other day. The old man had looked forward to the event, and had arranged a dinner, to which he invit- ed a large number of acquaintances. The young man was modest, and, to the great humiliation of his father, made no attempt to display his learn ing. Tne old man waited several days, and when at Its' he saw no evi dence cf his son’s education, ho ap- proacl e 1 him and said : “ Jim, it do seem ter me dat yer’s putting yer edycation ter a mighty I ain’t heard a big word from I can un’erstan’ yer gist as I did ’fore yer went ter dat El a man’s edycated I wants him to talk so as I can’t un’erstan’ him. Me an’ yer mudder hab been talkin’ ’bout dis matter, an’ we’ee grieved way down in the flesh. Jim, W'hat’s de big word for grasshopper?” “ Orthopterous insect of the genus gryllus, according to Webster,” re plied the young man. “ But de tuther day when dem folks was heah yer spoke ob a grasshopper jest de same as de iguorestest nigger in de couutry an’ brought sh tine down on de heads of yer mudder and myself. What’s de big word for goat?” “ Mammiferous quadruped of the genus capra,” answered the young man. “But why didn’t yer say so, ’stead of sayin’ goat like a nigger, an’ bring- in’ de tingle ob embarrassment ter yer fader’s face? What did I gin yer dat schoolin’ fur—ter t«lk like a unedyea- ted son ob apo’ whiteman? Tuink dat I’se gwine ter keep yer heah in idleness yer kin reflect cree ie on de family? Jim, what is de big words for blamed fool?” , “ I don’t kno w, sir.” “Yerdoan’? Den yer ain’t’q mint ed wid yersef. Yer doan’ recognize whar yer stands. Go out dar in de fields wid a mule an’ identify your self.” f The Laundries of the Seine, Women kneel in the boals on the banks of the Heine, pounding their linen with the wooden battoln, scrub bing it with a stiff brush on a ridged board, while the/ sing as merrily as larns, and reply to the banter of the passing bargee and canotitr. They turn the handle of the wringing machines and do all the hard labor while the men are busy ironing. They man in the blue cotton trousers and snowy white shirt, with the scarlet girdle round his waist, can iron as well as any Chinaman. He can boast of having among his colleagues men who can gofler a frill, or “bring up” the leftly to which in who *in his billiard he passes over the hot he eomes to the front, the Sr the wristbauds. He has learn- rudiments of his art when, a soldier in barracks, he was compelled to do his own washing and ironing, and he works by the piece, earning his living, and glowering angrily when his profits are menaced by the threat of introducing the mangle, as yet almost unknown on this side of the Channel. Tne blanehi^eur goes into Paris on the Monday morning with the clean linen, and the ironers, *ho have been working overtime on the Sunday and on the two preceding days, take a rest . They may be feu id on the Monday afternoon at one or other of the concerts at Pont du Jour, enjoying themselves as best they can with the firm in lent ion of not resuming their occupations until Wednesday. Some times their employers cannot secure their seivices until the Friday, but, as a general rule, they prefer to wait, for they are uugallant enough to main tain that it Is far better and more profl- abie to employ men than women. Alphabetical. The Sandwich Island alphabet has 12 letters; the Burmese, Id; the Italian, 20; the Bengalese, 31; the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee and Samari tan, 22 each; the French, 28; the Greek, 24 j the Latin, 25 ; the Ger man, Dutch and English, 26 each; Spanish, 27 ; the Arabic, 28; the Per sian, 81; the Russian, 41; the San- sorlpt, 60 ; the Ethlopio, 202. An Old Irish Prophecy. The follow’Dg letter appears in a recent issue of the London Times :— Sir:—I had a visit last week from an Irish person lane lord, who, being weary of living in daily fear for hie life, had come to seek rest and security in Ergland. He tells me that the Irish people dressed and disguised for the market by the introduction of foreign earthy matters. In concluding, he said that the neglect of the laws of morality, of the lines of true beauty, and of correct smitary principles in matters of dress wassufti lent to justify his short paper, and to give him a reason for calling the attention of the Congress to some of the causes of continue l ill health are very much excited by the fact among the community. That which Htuff and nonsense—A big dinner speeches. that Easter is to fall next year “in our lady’s arms” i. e., on Lady Day, March 26th. The current tradition is that this happened in the year of the battle of the Boyne, and that at its next occurrence Ireland is to be free. He tells me further that a friend of his “verified” the statement as to the year 1690 by means of a mechanical almanac. Now, a mechanical alma nac may very well be made to show the date of Easter for any particular century, but a mechanism which is to take account of the century adjust ment of the calendar, would be al most fcs complicated as Babbage’s cal culating machine. Possibly people have been misled by trying to apply to other centuries a mechanism adjusted to the present century. At all events, if superstitious people in Ireland are encouraging them selves by any such tradition as my friend mentions, it is desirable that they should be set right as to the facts of the case. It is quite true that Easter will fall “in our Lady’s arms” in 1883, but the vears in wl?ich this has previously happened have been as follows:—Old Htyle, 1643, 1564, 1627, 1638, 1619, 1722, 1738, 1744 New Style, 1663, 1674, 1731, 1742. The New Style was intro duced into England in 1752, but was used by the Roman Cathol cs from 1782. In neither style do any of the above years correspond with events of any singular importance in Ireland. I may aud that the battle of the Boyne was fought on July 9 h, 1699, in wh j ch year Easter of Old Style fell on April 20th, aud Easter of the New Style on March 26:b. Irish papers please copy. I am, sir, your obedient servant, W. Allen Whitworth. St. John’s Vicarage, Hammersmith. Dressing for Health. At the British Sanitary Congress, held at Newcastle, a paper by Dr. Al fred Carpenter was read on the “S uni tary Aspect of Dress.” He first di rected attention to the foot, aud said that not one-half of the population had really natural feet. The cause was not far to seek, for parents were forgetful of the fact that children’s feet had a tendency to grow larger as the children grew. It would be far better for children to be brought up without wearing any kind of boot at all than to have the muscles wasted, the bones distorted aud the joints per verted in their action in the way in which it was the custom now to do among the low, rich and poor. Refer ring to high heels and pointed toes, he said it certainly argued a low taste aud a very weak intellect when such things as these were worn by the lady who aspired to be considered as a “queen or society,” and who wished to make a sensation among her fellows. High heels and pointed toes must interfere with exercise, must make the wearers sufLr from want of mus cular exeftion, and therefore must lay the foundation f >r all those diseasis which spring from dyspepsia and all its allies. It was this tendency to place ligatures on the other parts of the body as well as the foot which so often rendered human nature ridicu lous aud produced suffering of the most serious kiud. The good sense of the English nation was abolishing stays from the list of articles which young girls wore, but they were sadly too much used,even now. HeaLh was sacrificed to figure, the viscera of the body were displaced in the most ex traordinary manner from the posi tion which they should occupy, be cause it was thought by some that a slim waist was a thing of beauty. The way in whloh infants were clothed and ligatured, often to their fatal in jury, aud the materials in whloh they were enveloped, too thin In oold weather, and too thiok, heavy and hot lu summer, formed a very important subject whloh he dealt with in detail, and he also spoke of the use by manu facturers of arsenic, antimony and lead as coloring materials for the pur pose of rendering the article heavy in the weighing scales. He also touohed upon the manner In whldA linens an (W wool Parliament dared not do, and which the Queen and Court v/evo unable to effect, would not be produced by the iSuntary Institute ; but as Parliament had erased to enact sumptuary laws because real knowledge and good sense were opposed to such enactments so the Sanitary Institute, by promul gating sound information upon the matters in question, might influence public opinion aud assist In bringing good sense into power even among the votaries of fashion and the followers of custom. This might in lime pro duce the desired effect, even more cer tainly than could be done by the Q leen, the Lords aud the Commons combined, or by compulsion in any form. Peel's Corner. Mithras. When his eyes upon ncr be She trembles—lor she Is not fair— And scarce she would that he should see Tne absence of all beauty there. When his lips her fingers press, Can she sigh with such a care ? Ah, no; lor in that dear caress, She kaows her b est and feels her lair. When his arms about her meet, Then she breathes diviner air; With his ueart her pulses beat, Blooms her soul and makes her fair, What Is Death 1 Looking on a page where stood Graven of old on old-world wood Death, and by the giave s edge grim, Pale, the young man lacing him, Asked my well-beloved of me Once what strauge thlug this might be, Gaunt and great of limb. Death, f told him; and, surprise Deepening more his wild wood eyes (Like some sweet fleet thlug woose breath Speaks all spling though nought it saith), Up he turned nls rose-bright face, Glorious with Its seven years’ grace, Asking—Wnat Is death? The Odyssey. As one that lor a weary space has lain Lulled by the song of Circe aud her wine lu gardens near the pale ul Proserpine, Wuere tUat iEie iri Isle iorgets the main, And only the low lutes of love complain, •l nd only shadows of wan lovers pine As Mich a one were glad to know tne brine Salt on his lips, and the large air again. So, gladly, from the songs ol modern speech Men turn, aud see the stars, aud feel the free Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers, And through the music ol the languid hours They hear like ocean on a western beach The surge and ttiunder of the Odyssey. Two Roses. 0 brilliant, blooming, bright-red rose, Whose seen led odor heavenward goes, 1 love thy beauty, color, rlze, Thou sweetest flower beneath the skies ! Bat greater far than I love thee, 1 love two love who gav’st thee me. Though siia with thee might well commune, A) thou with her could’st truly vie, Thou hast a richness in thy bloom, And she has beauty in her oye ; Her look inspires eternal bliss ; Thine breatnts forth N iture's loveliness.* Thou art a rose, aud so Is she ; Each blossoms In the bright to-day, Pure as thou art may ner life be, Until It shed its parting ray ! E'en as at night, thy portals close, Bo shall her eyelids find repose. A Few Jokes, Never go into a railway superin tendent’s offlee with a clergyman. There is nothiug a railway man hates to see more thau a man coming in to introduce a coupler. As good almost to kill a man as a good book. Many a man lives a bur den to the earth ; but a good book is he precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. Fashionable ladies now appear at concerts, theatre 1 -* and other public gatherings, with dainty, lets, leaving their cheese home. Sensible, indeed! the ot o ipant of the seat in some chance to view the evening small bo covers a For it gi the rea stage. Whe^Arabi comes over here to lec ture, iwll be on the lookout for those fellow# who have been punning on te. his nti Ai Bnortgage on a house is like a wotJ V-holu in an apple. Before you kml v it, there is more worm-hole tlm? fruit. 11 ’Tls home where e’er the heart is.” •Then you should always feel at home in the butoher shop, wherein Is not only the heart but the liver. Virginia has 172 tobaoco factories, which consume 48,000,000 pounds of wqAaunually. The Field of Science The ScUntifle American says that the pr»j dice against American hem lock-tanned leather lias disappeared, and English tanners now appreciate its excellent qualities. Its capabilities for resisting water and withstanding wear by attrition in the soles aie said t > be quite equal to those of the best English sale leather, and greatly su perior to the leather of English “mixed” tannages or the generally poor sole leather made on the conti nent of Europe. An artist of Florence several years ago introduced a method of painting on silk or other fabrics in such a way that the surfaces cf the colors were not damaged when folded or ruobed, but remained as bright and as smooth as when first laid on by the brush. The medium of the Adolfi process is no longer kept secret, as it is protected by patent. It is manufactured for the use of amateurs and others. Some Italian artists, it is said, have tried the mediu n tor ordinary oil painting on canvas. The British were not the first to bring balloons with them to Egypt for purpe ses of war. They were cer tainly taken out by the French airny in 1794 Bonaparte was unable to use them, however, as the apparatus for the preparation of the hydrogen gas was destroyed when Nelson annihila ted the French fleet at Aboukir. These balloons were ycry small, having a capacity of only 539 cubic metres. They were made of silk, and were inflated with hydrogen made by causing steam to act on iron filings. From a paper read before the R *yal Society (f Tasmania, by the Rev. J. E Tenison Wood, it appears that the sweetbriar has become a rampant and formidable weed, and so have the cochineal cactus and one or two of its k'ndred developed into similar nui sances in Australia and Tasmania. The European fuiz > has a’so grown very abundant in Tasmania, hut as yet it does not 11 >unsh on the mainland of Australia. The American butterfly, Dauais crippus, occurs all over Aus tralia, aud has been seen far out at sea in enormous flights. To copper or brass objects with silver without difficulty or loss of time, the following process is given : Mix two parts of chloride cf silver with twenty parts of powdered cream of tartar and fifteen parts of powdered common salt. Moisten a suitable quantity ot the mixture with water, and rub it with a piece of blotting paper upon the metallic olj’ct, which must be thoroughly clean. The latter is after ward rubbed with a piece of cotton upon which precipitated chalk is dusted, then washed witn water, and polished with a dry cloth. The manufacture of alcohol from potatoes by means of hydrocliloiic acid is carried on entirely in Germany according to Les Oer.ie Civil, as bil lows: The potatoes are introduced into apparatus in which they arc- treated with steam at high pressure; aud then sac iharitieation is efteoted with hydrochloric acid, and the excess of acid is neutralized with cat bonate of soda. The cooled mass is submit ted to fermentation in vats, then dis tilled. When saturation has been reached the residues may without in convenience, be employed as food for cattle. Among the many fillers in use for porouH hard wood this i s recommend ed as one of the best: Stir boiled oil aud corn-starch into a very thick paste ; add a little japan aud reduoe with turpentine, but add no color for light ash. For dark ash and chestnut use a little raw sienna; for walnut, burnt umLor aud a slight amount of Venetian red; for bay wood, burnt sie#na. In no caso use more color than is required to overcome the white appearauw <-f the starch, unless it is wished to stain tho wood. The tiller is worked with brush and rags in the usual manner. Let it dry forty- eight hours, or until it is in condition to rub down with No. 0 sand paper, without much gumming up, and if an ex ra-line finish is desired fill again witii the same materials, using less oil, but more of j ipan and turpentine. — r Logging in Nevada. A chute Is laid from the river’s brink up the steep mountains to the railroad, aud while we are felling it, the mon ster logs are rushing, flying, leaping down the declivity. They come with the speed of a thunderbolt and some what of its roar, A track of smoke and fire follows them—fire struck by th a friction with the chute logs. Ti descend the 1700 feet of the chute 14jsecopds, In doing so they drop 700 feet per pendicularly. They strike the deep wat t with a report that can be heard a ruilo distant. Logs fired from can non could scarcely have a greater velocity than they have at the foot of the chute. The average velocity is over 100 feet in a second throughout the entire distance, aud at the instant they leap from the mouth their speed is 290 feet per second. A sugar pine log sometimes weighs teutons. What a missile! How the water is dashed into the air. Like a grand plume of diamonds aud rain bows tho feathery spray is hurled to the height of 100 feet. It forms the grandest fouutain ever behel'. How the waters foam and seethe and lash against the shore! One log, having spent Us force by its mad pluuge into the deep waters, has 11 mted so as to be at right angles with the path of the de ceiving monsters. The mouth of the chute is perhaps fifteen feet above the suiface cf the water, A huge log, hurled from the chute, cleaved the air aud alights on the floating log. You know how a bullet glances; but can you imagine a saw log glancing. The end strikes wlih a heavy shock, but glides quick- ly past for a short distance, then with a crash like the reverberation of artil- 1 ry, the falling log springs vertically into the air and with a curve like a rcoket falls into the water, a long dis tance from the leg it struck. An Encounter With a Bear in a Cave. Henry A H Ul, one of our most pop ular letter-carriers, is in Ne.v Bruns wick, enj >ying a snort vacation. Mr. Hall is quite a Nimrod, and with rifle and fLking-tackle is making havoc among the denizens of the forests and lakes of New Brunswick. From a pri vate letter we are permitted to make t he follo wing extracts : “I cannot close this letter without telling of a little close rub I have had since here, though you may think I am exercising a Yan kee privilege of bragging. Last Mon day, when out in the forest about twenty miles from town, I came across a camp of Frenchmen, wheie I hired a young boy to guide me into the woods About two hours after we started we came to a c ,v ) and I sent the boy in out of curiosity. He called out there were some bear cubs inside. Just a* he did so I heard a crashing and growling beside me and had just time to bring my trusty rifle to my shoulder and fire at a black mass that tumbled past me, and as it plunged iuto the mouth of the cave I realized bruin had come hack. I don’t know how I ever did It, but I have an iudistiuct recollection of drop ping my gun, drawing my bowie- knife and jumping into the dense darkness of the csr e. It is as a dream " —horrible—ancj like a nightmare in which every'.uing is mixed. I re member plunging my kuife again and again i^to the body, the warm jet of blood, the tearing of claws acioss my body, the hot break in my fspe. a close embrace—then darkness! When I revived I was lying outside the caye and the Frenchmen were cuttiugupthe monster, which weighed when dress ed, 450 pounds. Petit Pierre, my boy guide,had been in the'cave during my combat, aud, when the b ar fell on me in his death struggle, he crawled out of the cave and ran back to camp, r am all right, or shall be when the marks of the brute’s claws are healed. I shall bring his skin back with me tnd I wish I could give you a piece o the beef.” Habits of the Codfish. 1 . i A correspondent of the New Yolrk 1 Post says that the codfish frequence ^ “ the table lands of the sea.” • The codfish no doubt does this to secure as nearly as possible a dry, bracing atmosphere. This pure air of the sub marine table lands gives to the codfij that breacth of chest and doptl lungs whioh we have always not The glad, free smile ef the is largely attributed to the exhil of this oceanic altitoodleum. The correspondent further i “ the cod subsists largely on cherry.” Those who have nt the pleasure of seeing the olirnb the sea cherry tree in sc food, or clubbing the fruit frol heavily laden branohes with ol of coral have missed a very fine The oodflsh, when at horn] bling through the submarine^ doft not wear his vest unbutj he does while loafing aro{ grocery stores of the Unit